EDITORIAL: In Indiana, we must do more on preventing infant mortality

Indiana ranks in the 10 deadliest states in the country for infants, according to Sally Dixon, the Fetal Infant Mortality Review manager for the St. Joseph County Health Department. The infant mortality rate is measured by the number of deaths of an infant up to 1 year per 1,000 births. The 2018 rate for the U.S. was 5.9, with Indiana at 7.2.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to become numb to these statistics, overwhelmed by the hugeness of the challenge. Year after year, the numbers remind us that we’re not where we should be, as a state, as a community, on this issue. There’s no easy fix, and any effort must be comprehensive.

Dixon, in a recent presentation, said that focusing on women’s health before they get pregnant is important. “You can’t prioritize women’s health just when they get pregnant. It has to come before,” she said.

To that end, she noted that the One Key Question Initiative is being rolled out to help advise women on being as healthy as they can be before pregnancy. Dixon also points to state laws and initiatives — including a program that will connect mothers to community resources — that will help.

Indiana’s Gov. Eric Holcomb has named infant mortality a priority issue, and has set the goal for the state to be “Best in the Midwest” by 2024. We praised the passage earlier this year of House Enrolled Act 1007, which authorizes a pilot program pairing high-risk pregnant women with individual health care workers in the 13 ZIP codes with the state’s highest infant mortality rates — which includes one in St. Joseph County.

But in that same session, state lawmakers were unable to pass bills to increase Indiana’s cigarette tax and raise the legal smoking age to 21. The state’s smoking rate among pregnant women — which is associated with the chief causes of infant deaths — is nearly twice the national average. Meanwhile, the funding for tobacco prevention and cessation has been slashed to inadequate levels.

In a column earlier this year, Dr. Richard Feldman, a former state health commissioner, put it this way: “The smoking rate among pregnant women in Indiana is almost 14 percent ... Really want to lower the infant mortality rate? Get serious about lowering this statistic.”

The increased attention on infant mortality is welcome, as are the local and state initiatives targeting the problem. But in a state where a shameful number of babies die before their first birthday, more can and must be done.

We can’t afford to become numb or desensitized to the problem. There’s work to do to defeat the scourge that is infant mortality.